Contested Bodies, Contested Knowledge: Museal representations of prostitution

• In Event: Uncovering Histories of Crime, Violence and Victmization

Abstract

This paper compares and analyze the representations of, and reactions to, prostitution at the “Jack the Ripper Museum” in London, the exhibit Splendeurs & miséres at Musee D’Orsay in Paris, France, the exhibit Easy Virtue at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the exhibit at the Lombroso Museum in Turin, Italy, and the Kriminalmuseum in Vienna, Austria.

The claim put forth is that the representations of prostitution found in these exhibits, display the main changes in both the views on, and the regulation of prostitution, during the last three centuries. Furthermore, that these show the development and historical trajectory on the modern representations of prostitution.
This paper is part of a book project and has been co-authored with professor May-Len Skilbrei.

Author

• Per Joergen Ystehede, University of Oslo